The invention relates to a system and to a method in which a substantial number of unsorted coins (greater than the amounts spent in vending machines for purchasing items) are deposited in the machine. The coins are sorted and counted to determine a total value. The user is issued a voucher for an amount related to the total value.
This offers a service to the consumer and provides a commission to the sponsoring organization. Since the introduction of state and local sales taxes, goods have been priced in such a way that people tend to accumulate a great deal of coinage. People tend to store this coinage in their homes. There have been few receivers of large amounts of coin change from consumers, other than banks, and people do not prefer to carry significant amounts of change in their pockets or purses. In recent years, certain voucher dispensing machines have been seen in grocery stores, which provide a voucher to the consumer for buying groceries or other items at the store or for redemption for cash. Some amount of the transaction is retained as a commission, usually less than 10%. Examples of machines for carrying out these transactions are shown and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,736,251, 6,494,776, 6,484,863 and earlier related patents cited therein.
Various other types of machines for both receiving coins and providing the consumer with a credit have been known, including ATM machines and large cash handling machines for gaming operations. ATM machines have generally been limited to dispensing small amounts of change for a dollar, cash withdrawals in the form of bills, or pre-rolled rolls of coin. The large cash handling machines for gaming establishments sort the change into bins, which must then be emptied and further processed before being placed in a dispenser or distributed to customers through cashiers.
The prior art shows various distribution systems for routing coins. U.S. Pat. No. 6,318,557 shows a system with a first manifold, exit chutes, and rotating coin distributors for distributing coins to manifolds which feed coins to coin receptacles. Magee et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,245,545, shows a system for separating pennies from other denominations and sending the pennies and non-pennies to two respective chambers, because it is said that pennies constitute up to seventy-five percent of the coins deposited in self-service machines.
There remains a need for a self-service coin recycling machine, which is easy for an average user to operate, and which reliably sorts and counts the coinage deposited. The machine should be easy and convenient to service, to maintain and to remove the accumulated coinage. The machine should be capable of dispensing a receipt, a voucher or a form of credit.